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Letter: Preserve access to Planned Parenthood

To the editor
| on March 20, 2017

House Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP leadership have made their plans official. Along with repealing the Affordable Care Act, they want to block Medicaid patients from accessing care at Planned Parenthood. Blocking access to health care at Planned Parenthood is unpopular, politically dangerous and would be a health-care disaster.

We cannot let politicians take health care away from millions of people. Defunding Planned Parenthood would be devastating. It would strip thousands of people of essential health care they rely on and block millions across the country from accessing reproductive health care.

For many patients, Planned Parenthood is the only health care provider they see. And blocking them from visiting Planned Parenthood means there would be nowhere else to go. We're not going to stand for it.

We must rise above ideological politics and preserve access to Planned Parenthood health centers for the thousands who come through their doors every year.